Meet the Fam

Bonjour!

I have been here almost one week! I would write tomorrow when it is officially a week, but I will actually be traveling for my first weekend living in Paris. I’m going with my host sisters to Normandy to meet the rest of the family and watch them go sky diving!

Speaking of my family, let me do some introductions.

First, my host family. In total it is my mom, Anne:

(In this photo she is holding a dish she made. It's a hamburger, but WAY better here. Even the French make better American food than Americans!) She is wonderful. She is the graphic artist for a famous french magazine, Paris Match. She loves cooking (as you can see from the photo) and watching black and white films. The other night we sat with her neighbor/best friend, Valerie (who is pretty much family) and looked at pictures of movie starts from the 1940’s.

From left to right: Nina, Luna, Alba, Terry! Luna and Alba are my host sister, but Nina and Terry are a big part of our house.

Luna is 17 which means she’s a senior in high school and is getting ready to take the BAC. She has so much homework...it makes me even more grateful that I’m finished with high school. She’s really big on art and is always drawing something. Her smile is one the best things about her and she makes you feel like you’re old friends even if you’ve just met.

Alba, my other sister, is 21. She’s studying psychology in college and also works pretty hard. Like Luna, she is so sweet and immediately makes me feel at home. Her sense of humor is sharp and she makes sassy little comments. While Luna emits a lot of energy, Alba has an air of coolness around her.

Nina (far left) is Luna’s best friend. She is so. funny. She reminds me a lot of my best friend from home. The first story my host family told me about her was one night when she stayed over, she woke up at midnight, went into the kitchen and finished all of the Nutella in the house. She’s clearly very comfortable and is also like extended family :)

Terry is Alba’s boyfriend. They are both studying physcology together and they’re so adorable together and he is such a nice guy (and if he weren’t, there are three women living here besides Alba who would kick him to the curb so quickly). I don’t know him that well yet, but he seems great.

Here are the cats, Cashmere and Almond. I’m not sure if they’re boys or girls, so we’ll say girls to make it an all-female household!

Don’t mind my face, we were taking a serious photo. Cashmere is cheeky and likes to sit with us at the dinner table and lean her head as close to your plate as possible before we push her back. She really just likes to hang out with humans, so we get along.

Almond, on the other hand, is sassy. She runs away from everything and doesn’t like hanging with humans...we’ll work on it.

Cashmere and me bonding.

Now, my other family! My gap group!

I say my other family, because we are already so bonded in five days that we have fake family dynamics.

Caroline is from just outside of Atlanta (Marietta...GA represent), Nick is from Portland, Maine, Robert is from Cambridge, Mass., Susan is from Portsmouth, NH and Catie is from Chicago.

Nick and Susan are mom and dad, I am their child, Catie is my controversial boyfriend, Caroline is Susan’s mistress and Robert is the family pet. It might be weird, but the point is that we all get along and it’s great!

Here are some more pics of the gap fam:

Getting ice cream even though it was freezing.

Getting breakfast with Lucie, our AMAZING director. She calls herself our French mom/friend all in one.

Most awkward selfie as we cruised down the Seine. We took a tour and saw La Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Le Louvre and more!  

That’s all for now! I’m having a blast and can’t even imagine returning to the US anytime soon (sorry, mom and dad)!

K